I would expect more air to be held together with copious amounts of iron oxide especially along the rear windows...unless this mini was really driven by one careful lady owner. However, the 'Xtreme MSport' sticker across the back window says otherwise.





So...is there any way to tell if panels have been replaced?

no reason for them not to be original...

leylands rust there, roundies not so much

Any particular reason for that? I find the lack of rust astonishing for such a car. My '76 roundy in the UK had more!

Up until ~1973 when Minis moved to Enfield plant, all Minis made here (at Zetland) got rotodipped before painting.

We don't salt the roads here either like in UK.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

ah.. that explains it

it's rare, but not unusual to find an original car that's lived in the middle of nowhere with no rust at all - and I mean none

plenty of cars are scrapped that are seen as too far gone out here would be seen as an easy job in UK

edit: put up a picture of the spot welds along the top of the mudguards, under where the sides of the bonnet are - it's usually easy to tell if they've been replaced, but chances are they're original

I've got two Minis in my shed.

A 65 UK Traveller that spent most of it's life in Australia.
An 88 Mayfair that lived in the UK until last year.

Only one of them is rusty, and it's not the oldest one.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

UK councils will spread 1.4 Million tonnes of salt on roads this winter.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2011/10/08/councils-stockpile-extra-road-salt-115875-23474325/

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Great! more classic cars are going to rust away even quicker

Or the alternative of skidding off a frozen road into a ditch because there was no salt on it.

They salt the roads. It is what they have to do. If they don't the country will come to a standstill. They don't spend money salting roads for the fun of it.

Owners of classic car know about the salt and park their cars when the rods are salted.

They might be protecting them now, but when they were new Minis weren't classics, they were driven all winter through the grit and slush. By the time anyone realised they were worth preserving most of them had been scrapped. bnicho's Mayfair is the perfect example.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

You should have seen my 1990 Cooper when I bought it in 2004. Only 14 years old at the time but i've never seen anything near half as bad in Australia. I even had one of the mini guys from Wollongong getting on about all the rust my car had as being excessive and that was after having the whole front end and bulkhead replaced, floors fixed, new boot floor, beaver panel and rear quarter repair panels before it left the UK, then new doors ex japan to get it thru Blue Slip here!

The best place to buy a Rover Mini is Malaysia, shipping is also reasonable

.

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'.....They salt the roads. It is what they have to do. If they don't the country will come to a standstill..."

I suspect a lot of Oz drivers don't get the opportunity to enjoy commuting when the roads are covered with ice, snow and slush for weeks/months at a time. Our local community saved money by not having the roads ploughed/salted. My aim was to finish the drive home by spinning the car (MkI Rabbit) a couple of times and finish in the middle of the cul-de-sac pointing at my drive - occasionally I managed something close. Sometimes one of the neighbours would spoil the fun by leaving their car in the street - I didn't trust the accuracy of my handbrake turns THAT much .

In another neighbourhood it was a major community event in spring to shovel all the grit out of the gutters (the ploughs spread a mix of sand and salt but the salt washes away ...leaving sandbanks.

I'm always amazed that Brits built cars that rusted, leaked and had useless heaters - you'd think they'd get enough practice. My 6 year old Civic didn't have a speck of rust....

Oh well, Ian